


The Drowned Man

by Multifandom_damnation



Series: The Storm that comforts the Sea [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Charmspeak (Percy Jackson), Dark Percy, Drowning, Earthquakes, Gen, Jason Grace & Percy Jackson Bromance, Late Night Conversations, Minor Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Night Terrors, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Post-Tartarus (Percy Jackson), Sleep Deprivation, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-28 17:37:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20782493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Demigods never really have good dreams, but what happens if you just so happen to have gone to Tartarus and back and be the son of the sea god? Property damage, near drowning and a giant earthquake, that's what.Annabeth isn't here to help him through it, but Jason is just gonna have to do.





	The Drowned Man

**Author's Note:**

> GOD I've had this in my WIPS for SO LONG you have no idea, but now I'm finally putting out there for the world so see, so please enjoy this self-indulgent shit-show. Basically, just Jason being there for his bro Percy after a REALLY bad nightmare. That's all. Let me know what you thought x

Some nights, Percy dreamt of falling hours, days, months through darkness that burnt and blistered his skin surrounded by jagged rocky expanses of hideously twisted mountains with Annabeth’s limbs wrapped around his in a desperate embrace, the roaring of cackling beasts and whistling wind rushing past his ears.

Other nights, he dreamt of drowning, of leaping into a body of water only for his limbs to grow heavy, his eyes to blur in an effort to see through the constantly shifting waves, his lungs to freeze as they filled with liquid until all he could do was choke on it as he sunk.

Sometimes it’s a rocky outcropping lined with vibrant yet deadly flowers and a miserable goddess blocks his path, but his veins were full of fury and her's were full of liquid agony, so Percy summons poison from the earth and sears her skin with it, disfiguring her ugly face until there is nothing left but a puddle of tears and the echo of some unearthly scream.

Occasionally, it’s a face appearing from the earth with cascading waves of hair, a stern face and eyes closed in slumber or a cruel faced man with golden eyes and black hair holding a wickedly dangerous scythe at his side or all the gods on Mount Olympus staring down at him with hatred and disdain in their eyes. Even his own father. A giant, malformed monster made out of taken body parts and dark armour, a face hidden behind an obsidian helmet, it’s veins filled with the different rivers that ran through the Underworld, his booming voice echoing the world his body was made of and shaking Percy to the core.

Often, it’s Camp Half-Blood being drenched in thousands of tonnes of water, campers drowning and screaming and being washed away by the rushing tides until every building has been razed to the ground and every living creature has perished or been swept away into the unknown and Percy hates himself for it because _how could he let this happen?_ But he looks down and his eyes are glowing a toxic green and he is floating at the top of a massive wave and suddenly everything clicks into place. He didn’t save the camp from the flood because _he caused the flood._

Each time, he woke panting with his skin slick with sweat and his heartbeat pounding in his ears. And every time, without fault, he would immediately be wrapped tightly in Annabeth’s arms, her face burrowed in his neck and whispering sweet nothing’s into his skin, grounding and comforting him until his lungs were finally able to fill again with air and the panic began to recede from the corners of his vision. And in return, Percy would hold her when nightmares of giant spiders and pitch-black nothingness and glowing green eyes would haunt her dreams, cooing loving words in her ear and crushing her to his chest so she could sob into his shirt.

But not tonight. After many hours of trying and failing to convince her to stay, Annabeth had regretfully informed him that she needed to spend some time with her father and her stepbrothers after being away for so long with very little to no communication between them since the war and her father was beginning to worry, and when Percy had carefully suggested that he come along, she had gripped his face in her hands and placed a dazzling kiss to his lips and told him “A lone daughter of Athena travelling through the country is much safer than a daughter of Athena and a child of the Big Three, who just so happens to be Percy Jackson.”

And damn it, how badly he had wanted to protest, but as she was so often with everything in their lives, she was totally right. It would be dangerous, and Zeus would strike them out of the sky the moment Percy even stepped foot on a plane.

Maybe he should have taken her advice- gone back to his family’s apartment and spent time with Sally, caught up with Paul, played with Estelle. But no- he couldn’t do that to them, not to his family who had been there for him through everything and had loved him when he was unlovable. He couldn’t go to them when even closing his eyes for a moment caused him pain.

But Annabeth wasn’t with him tonight- she didn’t have her gentle arms wrapped around his waist, her long curls weren’t tickling his skin, he didn’t have the steady rise and fall of her chest and her constant pounding heartbeat. He didn’t have his anchor to keep him steady.

At this point, he expected to have nightmares instead of a dreamless night because that’s what all demigods went through at some time in their training, but Percy’s dreams had always been more vivid than most ever since his very first quest.

His hands were slick with blood and where he knelt on the ground, his heart was on the floor between his knees as if someone had ripped it from his chest and his sword was held limply in his hand. A hand lowered to place a finger beneath his chin and Percy diligently looked up, right into the golden eyes of Luke Castellan, the first demigod to ever show him kindness, his familiar face twisted into something cruel and unrecognisable. “Well, Percy.” Luke’s mouth moved but the voice that came from it was a mockery of the body it was using, “I did tell you that if you continued on your petty quest to destroy me, I would be the one to rip you to pieces. I will say though- you do put up a good fight.”

There was a fist colliding against his cheek, the familiar burn of a cigarette against his neck, and when he gathered the energy to turn he was face to face with the snarling features of Gabe Ugliano, his breath stinking of 7-layer-bean-dip and alcohol, the cigar in his fingers emitting foul-smelling smoke into the sky, his knuckles cracked and bleeding. “I always did say that you were nothing but trouble. You were always going to get yourself killed.” He punched Percy in the face again and he reeled away, falling flat on his back. “I’m just glad to finally find a way to get rid of you without your mum catching on.”

And then Percy could feel the earth opening up beneath him, his body pouring blood from every open orifice and his vision going dark as Luke’s unkind face smiled and laughed as Percy tumbled down, down the great crevasse and the walls were nothing but jagged rock and he could feel the blinding, white-hot heat from the pit and the deep, all-consuming chuckle seemed to echo all around him and shake him to his core. Glancing up, Percy saw his heart spiralling after him and suddenly the opening of Tartarus closed above his head and-

“Percy!” Someone had their hands on him and was shaking him roughly and when Percy finally managed to squint his eyes open, he saw Jason, hair dishevelled and his shirt thrown on backwards. His eyes were wide and his grip on Percy’s shoulders was almost painful. “Come on man, wake up.”

Shooting upright, Percy gasped and gripped at his bedsheets as he tried in a vain attempt to calm his rapid, panicked breathing. Jason watched him with unconcealed worry as Percy pointedly tried to forget his friend was there and bowed his head.

Slowly, eventually, Percy leant back against his pillows with his eyes closed and breathed out a heavy sigh from his lips in an effort to calm down, his body still tight and rigid, his fingers clenched in the sheets. Realizing that there was no way Percy was going to start the conversation, so Jason started it for him. “That was… crazy. Worse than it’s been for a while.”

Percy didn’t want to speak to Jason, not really, but he was sitting on the edge of his bed with a very intent look on his face. He had left the door open behind him and Jason could see Nico, Clarisse and Will ushering away some of the younger campers from the doorway. “How bad was it?” he kept his voice low but pitched to carry and he hated the way it shook. His eyes were still closed.

Jason was suspiciously silent for a few long moments before he took a deep breath and blew it out through his nose. “You nearly flooded most of the camp- the sea was going crazy, I was a little worried about it leaking into the Zeus cabin,” Jason tied for a joke but it fell short when Percy didn’t react. “And uh… there was a pretty big earthquake. I think some of the satyrs and dryads and the rest of the forest folk are trying to put the camp back together a little bit, nothing too drastic. Although, there is a big crack down the side of the Hera cabin, so it’s a good thing nobody was in there.”

“Well, it’s not like she can ruin my life any more than she already has,” Percy spat bitterly as he got comfortable on the sheets again and tried to curl away as far from Jason as humanly possible. “Did I hurt anyone? Inanimate objects don’t count.”

“No,” Jason shook his head and Percy breathed another sigh of relief. “Nobody’s hurt. Some of the campers are pretty spooked though, especially the younger ones, but some of the others are trying to calm everyone down. I think Chiron was talking about a camp meeting.” He glanced at Percy out of the corner of his eye, his face pale and sweaty. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” Percy answered, but he knew that Jason wouldn’t leave him alone otherwise. He could feel his friend’s eyes on him, boring holes into his soul and pulling out all the broken, dirty parts of himself. “I’m always having nightmares, all demigods do. They’re usually prophecies for things to come or visions, but the ones I’ve been having lately are of things that have already happened. Fighting Kronos. Falling into Tartarus. Being watched by a sleeping Gaia. My stepfather being a…” Percy couldn’t find the right words for he settled for something gentler. “Prick. The usual things.” He took a deep breath and fiddled with his beaded camp necklace. “But there are times when I dream of past events and they end differently. Gabe staying with my mum. Kronos winning the war and killing me before tossing me into Tartarus. Even though I know that those events played out differently, it doesn’t stop me from getting really... angry.”

Nodding, Jason looked around the room- at all the clutter on the floor, the only other used bunk bed with a large dip in the centre and peanut butter smeared across the walls, the nets and tridents and bronze plated armour tossed in haphazard places, the wardrobe half open and clothes spilling out and onto the floor, pictures of Annabeth and his mother and his sister and all the people he loved most were pinned up on the wall with glue-tack and blue-tipped pins. “Well,” Jason said, “At least you’re able to rationalise the nightmares. I mean, it’s pretty crappy that you’re having them at all, but at least you can tell what’s real and what’s not.” Percy was silent, staring down at his fingers. “Um… is there something you’re having trouble differentiating?”

With one hand, Percy fiddled with his necklace filled with many years of memories and the other hand traced over the SPQR tattoo on his forearm, the singular dark line burnt into his skin of a memory he didn’t really have. “I know that it’s not something that I should be afraid of,” Percy admitted quietly, reluctantly divulging a secret that only he had only shared with Annabeth and wishing that she was by his side. “And I know that it’s… irrational, especially for me, but there are some nights when it’s all I can think about.”

Jason was honestly a little unsettled. “Uh… what aren’t you telling me? What do you think is so important that you have to keep it a secret?”

If Percy didn’t say it now, he wasn’t going to say it at all. “Drowning,” he spat abruptly, the word burning his tongue and searing the edges of his mouth as he said it. Jason looked taken aback. “My greatest fear is drowning.”

“Percy… you do know that you can’t... drown?” Jason knew how stupid he sounded but there was something so genuine and embarrassed and heartfelt in Percy’s face that Jason had no choice but to question him. Surely the son of Poseidon knew he couldn’t drown, especially after all this time?

Percy ran his hands through his hair but they came away slick and sticky, so he wiped them on his sheets, which weren’t much better. “I know. It’s stupid. But it’s happened before. You were there in the Nymphaeum when it happened the first time- you saw what happened. And then again in Tartarus, if it weren’t for Annabeth, I would have willingly sunk into one of the rivers. On my quest with Frank and Hazel in Alaska, I nearly suffocated in one of the bogs because Gaia pulled me in and I would have died if Hazel hadn’t jumped in after me to save me. And sometimes, whenever I’m near the water, I have that same overwhelming urge to run away because there’s always the possibility of it happening again.”

Pausing, Jason thought for a moment, his mind working a mile a minute to come up with a solution. “So, it’s not drowning you’re afraid of. You’re afraid of suffocating. Which is a totally different and completely acceptable thing.”

“Not if you’re the son of Poseidon who is sometimes afraid to put his head below the water.” Percy shot back and Jason saw the heartache in his friends face. “It’s like you, a son of Jupiter, being afraid of thunderstorms or flying in a plane. Totally rational. But being afraid of your own parent’s domain is not something you want to go flaunting.”

“Thalia is afraid of flying,” Jason said. “But nobody makes her feel bad about it. It doesn’t matter that she’s a Hunter of Artemis- you’re _Percy Jackson._ At this point, nobody is ever going to doubt you or make your fears a joke.”

But Percy was still shaking his head. “Nobody makes her feel bad about it because she’ll easily bite your head off if she catches you doing it,” Jason couldn’t help but laugh. “But what good am I if every time I look at the only reason I’m useful I almost pass out from fear?”

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Jason held his hands up, reeling a little bit. “You think that the only reason you’re ‘useful’ is that you’re good in the water? Are you insane? You’re Percy Jackson!”

Percy shot him a dark look out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, God of the _Sea_.”

“That doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to fear anything, though,” Jason couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and he actually put his hand out and rested it on Percy’s arm to ground them both. “With everything that you’ve been through in your life, it’d be ridiculous for people to think that you didn’t fear something. Hell, sometimes I’m surprised that you even manage to fall asleep at night.”

“So am I,” Percy said, and right at that moment, he sounded just so tired that Jason felt it in his bones. “Some nights I don’t, but then I pay for it. When I _do_, I pay for it. It’s not really a good situation for anyone involved.”

Licking his lips, Jason thought for a moment, looking around the room. “Would it be better if Annabeth were here?”

Percy stared at the ceiling. “Everything would be better if Annabeth were here.”

Humming, Jason pet Percy on the shoulder. He wasn’t sure what had happened to them in Tartarus, but Jason knew that it was terrible and that it resulted in Annabeth spending most nights in Percy’s cabin and both of them screaming at random moments at the middle night and the other waking up to comfort them. “I know, man. She’ll be back soon. You could always start spending time in my cabin- it’s pretty much empty,” that made Percy smile, and that made Jason proud. “Have you spoken to Nico yet? He told me that he’d be happy to help you when... I don’t know, your eyes start glowing and stuff like that.”

“I haven’t wanted to bother him,” Percy replied, but his eyes were closed and his voice was breathy and he sounded just so exhausted that Jason thought that Percy was already falling asleep. “Maybe another time, when I’ve had the chance to work it all out for myself.”

Licking his lips, watched as Percy struggled to keep his eyes open. He glanced to the door and saw Piper looking in, watching Jason intently- he held up a finger and told her to wait. Piper nodded and her head disappeared from the doorway. She closed it quietly behind her.

Percy’s chin was almost touching his chest, but he still looked like he wanted to stay awake despite both of them knowing it was a futile effort. “You know, Percy,” Jason said gently, voice low. “You say that you’re only useful and needed because you have a connection with water that nobody else does, but I don’t think anyone else thinks that the truth. I can sometimes summon lightning bolts from the sky, but that’s not why I was chosen by Juno to join you on your quest. That’s not why Frank looks up to you, or why Nico had a crush on you. Or why Annabeth fell in love with you.”

At the mention of Annabeth, Percy smiled. Jason continued to talk. “You’re a great leader, and good under pressure. You were always there when we needed you with the perfect answer and the right thing to say. You’re funny and kind and genuine and you care so much about everyone you meet it’s _insane_. You’re an amazing fighter, so amazing that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone match you in battle. You can talk to fish and horses and outsmart half-dolphin-pirates with the threat of a diet coke can. Your skill is almost unbelievable to watch. I don’t understand it most of the time. You’re a real threat. I understand why the monsters all know and fear your name.”

“You have every reason to be afraid,” Jason continued lowly. “You more than anyone else I’ve ever met. You’ve faced things I couldn’t even dream of. So what if you’re afraid of drowning, or being buried alive, or suffocating? That just makes you more human. It’s ok to have flaws, you know. I understand. You say it makes you weak, but I had no idea you felt like that until you just told me about it. You hide it well. And if it really affects you that badly, you do a great job of pushing that fear away to help us when we need it. You really... you’re the glue that holds us all together. Even when you’re scared, you still managed to put that all behind you and deal with what’s in front of you. And that’s something that I’ve always had a lot of respect for. You know what I mean?”

Jason felt a little awkward after spewing all of that, but Percy looked a little less ashamed and a little more tired and glassy-eyed. Which was what he was trying to accomplish. But with a start, Percy rubbed his hands roughly down his face and blinked hard in an attempt to stay awake. “I need to Iris-Message Annabeth,” he said abruptly.

“Yeah, sure,” Jason said, standing up from the bed to give Percy more room to stretch his legs. “I’ll get you a drachma.”

Instead of going to get a coin from Percy’s bedside table, however, he went to the door where Piper was patiently waiting. “What’s going on?” She whispered. “What happened to him?”

“He just had a nightmare,” Jason explained just as quickly. “I don’t know if he’s going to be able to go back to sleep. It was pretty bad. Could you give him a hand?”

Nodding, Piper followed Jason into the room and crouched down next to the bed while Percy was busy looking at one of the photos of him and Annabeth he had pinned up to his wall. “Hi there Percy,” she said softly, gently, soothingly, so much Charmspeak in her words that Jason actually felt his own eyes start to drop just by hearing her voice. “It’s really late. How about you lie down and try to get some sleep?” Slowly Percy’s eyes began to glaze over as he turned to face her. Jason reached over and began to arrange Percy’s pillows and helped him sink down the bed. “You’re going to have good dreams tonight, Percy. You’re gonna dream of your mum, and your little baby sister, and Annabeth. Beautiful, stunning Annabeth, who loves you so very much. Alright? So you get some sleep now, and when you wake up, you’ll feel much better.”

Percy’s eyes had already begun to drop before Piper had finished speaking, and Jason fixed the covers around his torso. He started to drool, and that’s when Jason knew that Piper had done the job. “Come on,” he whispered, helping her up. “Let’s get out of here. Let him rest. Gods know he deserves it.” 


End file.
